he
ship, except those who had gone ashore with the captain.

The skipper's wrath fairly boiled over. He vowed he would straightway
give his nephew a smart taste of the cat-o'-nine-tails, and put the
other two into irons, to teach them obedience. The boatswain
accordingly was summoned, and the delinquents ordered into custody, but
after a delay of half an hour, during which the captain's wrath seemed
to be every moment growing hotter, it was announced that the boys could
not be found, and the boat's crew sent ashore with the water-casks
positively declared that they did not return with them. As no other
boats but theirs and the captain's had held any communication with the
land, it appeared certain that the young gentlemen were still on shore,
intending probably to return by a shore boat later in the evening.

"Do they?" exclaimed Captain Wilmore fiercely, when this likelihood was
suggested to him by Mr Grey. "They'll find themselves mistaken, then.
Up with the anchor, Crossman, and hoist the mainsail. Before their boat
has left the quay, we shall be twenty miles from land. Not a word, Mr
Lavie. A month or two's stay in these islands will be a lesson they'll
keep by them all their lives."

No one ventured to remonstrate. The anchor was lifted, the great sails
were set, and in half an hour they were moving southward at a pace which
soon left the lights of Porto Prayo a mere speck in the distance.

But the boys had not been left behind, though no one but themselves and
old Jennings was aware of the fact. He had kept the boat from putting
off on her return to the ship, on one pretext or another, as long as he
could venture to do so, in the hope that the lads would make their
appearance. But he was aware that Andy Duncan's eye was upon him, and
could not venture to delay longer. It happened, however, that soon
after his return, Mr Lavie had found it necessary to send on shore to
the hospital for some ice, of which they had none on board, and old
Jennings had volunteered to go. He took the smallest boat and no one
with him but his nephew, Joe Cobbes, who was completely under his
orders. He landed at a different place from that at which the boat had
been moored in the morning, and sent his nephew with the message to the
hospital. He then made search after the boys, whom he soon discovered
at the regular landing-place, waiting anxiously for some means of
regaining the _Hooghly_.

"Hallo, Jennings," exclaimed